84 PROCEEDINGS OP THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



The time has now come to resign the trust which, ten years ago, 

 you so generously reposed in me by electing me one of your officers. 

 I do so in the full assurance that the good feeling between the 

 Governing Body and the Fellows of this Society, which has so long 

 characterized us, will not in the future become impaired ; and this 

 confidence is increased by the fact that you have chosen as my suc- 

 cessor a man of wider knowledge and more tried experience than my 

 own — one who has distinguished himself alike in the fields of Geo- 

 logical and of Biological research. Before retiring, however, I must 

 thank you for the great honour you have done me, and assure you 

 that to serve a Society to which I owe so much, has not only been a 

 duty and an honour, but also the highest of pleasures. I cannot be 

 insensible of your kindly indulgence towards my shortcomings, of 

 your more than generous appreciation of my efforts, and of your 

 warm support upon all occasions. The friendships which 1 have 

 formed here, among fellow-workers in the same fields of thought, 

 are such as make bright the disillusioned half of a life ; and, if I 

 ever could for one moment forget my indebtedness to this Society, I 

 should be recalled to duty and to faithfulness by the reflection that 

 but for the Geological Society I could never, in all probability, 

 have enjoyed what must always constitute my brightest retrospect — 

 the kindly interest, the warm sympathy, and the honouring friend- 

 ship of three such men as Scrope, Lyell, and Darwin. 



